Big 12 Football: Updated Head Coaches Salaries Ahead of 2023
Following yesterday’s news of Kansas State head coach Chris Klieman agreeing to a $44 million dollar contract extension that runs through the 2030 season, let’s take an updated look at head coach salary rankings ahead of the 2023 season.
After a career 30-20 record in Manhattan, as well as a Big 12 title on his resume, Kansas State athletic director Gene Taylor, outlined plans to keep Klieman in purple through the end of the decade.
Headlining the group is Oklahoma State head coach Mike Gundy with a salary of $7.625 million. Gundy signed a contract back in 2021 that would keep him in Stillwater through the 2026 season, with an option for the university to pick up an additional year through his annual one-year extension.
Checking in at second place on the list is the other school from Oklahoma, with Sooners head coach Brent Venables. Venables agreed to leave the Clemson Tigers and return to the Sooners to the tune of a six-year, $43.5 million dollar deal that is entirely guaranteed. Venables salary is good for second place with $7.1 million.
Steve Sarkisian is the next name to appear on the list as the Texas head coach’s salary sits at $5.6 million. Sark signed a six-year deal worth $34.2 million back in 2021 that includes annual $200,000 increases. Sarkisian’s salary will continue to increase each season, as his starting number has already jumped from $5.2 million to $5.6 million.
Kansas head coach Lance Leipold jumped into the top four with his contract earning a salary of $5 million dollars annually through the 2029 season. Leipold experienced success that many other Kansas coaches had failed to do in the past, earning him the fourth spot in the coaching salary ranks.
Chris Klieman‘s contract extension propels him into the fifth spot on the list, earning a salary of 4.5M through the 2030 season. Klieman took over for Hall of Fame coach Bill Synder in the 2019 season and has had the best four-year start to a career with the program.
Houston HC Dana Holgorsen slides into the sixth spot in the Big 12 Conference earning a salary of $4.3 million through the 2027 season. Holgorsen is 27-20 in his time with the Cougars.
Texas Tech head coach Joey McGuire earns a salary of 4.1 million dollars annually through the 2028 season. McGuire earned the extension after a successful start to his coaching tenure with the Red Raiders, earning himself the seventh spot on the list.
Both Iowa State’s Matt Campbell and West Virginia’s Neal Brown earn a salary of $4 million per year but with both coaches in must-win mode, the eighth and ninth spot on the list are interchangeable. Campbell is under contract through the 2028 season, and Brown is under contract through 2026.
The last five on the list are made up of Cincinnati’s Scott Satterfield, UCF’s Gus Malzahn, TCU’s Sonny Dykes, Baylor’s Dave Aranda, and BYU’s Kalani Sitake. Dykes, Sitake, and Aranda are at private universities so the details of their contracts are unknown. Satterfield is under contract through 2028 earning a salary of $3.4 million good for ninth in the Big 12. Gus Malzahn, officially the Big 12’s lowest-earning head coach, earns an annual salary of 2.3 million and is under contract through the 2025 season.
